This economic meltdown has made for some truly depressing stories, but also ones that are at least darkly humorous. The report on CNN that a graduate is suing her school because she couldn’t find a job is one that at least skirts up to the border of the absurd. The graduate is asking from demanding Monroe College refund her the full $72 thousand in tuition she paid for a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology.
The graduate has suggested that Monroe is passing over her as a possible job applicant in favor of its students who have achieved higher grade scores. The graduate’s grade point average was 2.7. There are students with grade point averages of 4.0.
I should stipulate that Monroe College is hardly what we refer to in the background checking industry as a diploma mill. It is a longstanding institution that was established back in 1933, the time of Great Depression. It has been around for 75 years. It is an accredited college. It does what it is supposed to do. It provides you with an education.
What you do with your education should be your own concern. No reputable school can really be held accountable because its students can’t find a job. There are plenty of college graduates right now who have either been laid off or can’t find work. There are younger and more recent graduates. There are more senior level executives who graduated some years ago. In conducting education verification searches, I see graduates from the most prestigious schools vying for jobs they wouldn’t have even looked at a year or so ago.
I know of a fair amount of recent graduates who are scuffling to find work. Some came from the nation’s more prestigious schools. There are MBA’s who originally would not take a lesser position now looking for any position that would help prevent them to going home and living with Mom and Dad.
Times have changed. I realize searching for work can be frustrating, despairing. It is truly more difficult to look for employment than to work a job. Clearly, with the country in a recession there are no guarantees. Not about nothing. Part of one’s skill sets is being able to find work . And that is up to you.
